Poultry Article & Research

Eggs have always been considered to be a standard safe food. Few people realise that every egg is different, and some may not be fit to eat at all.An egg is made up of albumen, yolk and a porous shell made of calcium carbonate. The internal ingredients of an egg can be altered so that the natural composition changes by manipulating the feed of the hens. For instance, in Japan, Omega 3 and iodine have been introduced into the eggs.

In the last few decades, poultry industry has grown tremendously all over the world. Consumption of chicken has increased due to its versatility as a food,and considered as healthier meat than others. As poultry industry progressed, disease outbreaks and its associated challengeshave become more common and costlier to manage. Recently, the Newcastle disease (ND), low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) and high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) have become endemic, resulting in heavy losses to poultry industry. During disease conditions, poultry farmers rely more on medication and vaccination for control measures.This is associated with highcosts,and often success is not guaranteed. Strict biosecurity measures along with vaccinations are adopted to control some contagious poultry diseases, as vaccination alone is not enough to control diseasesinfield conditions.

Profitability of poultry farming depends up on faster growth of the birds, breast meat yield, efficiency of feed conversion rates and lower mortality and morbidity rates for broilers, and quality and quantity of egg production for layers. Plant based materials such as corn, soya, wheat bran, etc., are used as major ingredients for animal feed preparation. These ingredients are usually prone to toxigenic fungal attack, leading to contamination with single or multiple mycotoxins1. It has been proved by various studies that mycotoxins are having carcinogenic, estrogenic, immunotoxic, nephrotoxic, hepatotoxic and neurotoxic effects on animals and the effect is more pronounced, when multiple mycotoxins are present2,3,4. These effects can lead to a significant loss in profitability of poultry farming. Several researchers have investigated the mode of action of various mycotoxin and the pathways associated to pathogenesis1,4. In addition to this, some recent reports suggest that mycotoxins have a negative effect on beneficial gut microflora5.

Chennai, December 2018: Kemin India hosted Young CEO Forum for Next Generation Entrepreneurs- a first of its kind event in the industry addressing various aspects of organizational development, business process, people management, leadership development, disruptive innovation and family governance. The sessions were conducted by experts from all around the world including The Argonauts- Joost Thurman, Xavier Speeleveld, Jimmy George from Acts Global, Hero Moto Corp’s Mr. Nitai Utkarsh, Mr. Vijay Batra from Think Inc. and Mr. Chandrashekhar G from Business Line.

Poultry birds are susceptible to various kinds of diseases and immune challenges. The emerging diseases are posing added threat for successful broiler production. All these factors are negatively impacting the optimum bromodulators to challenge diseases are in the need of hour. Thus, the concept of β-glucans and mannans as few of those remedies to reduce disease have been developed in last few years. β-glucans are a group of polysaccharides (glucose polymers produced by yeast, fungi, algae and cereal grains) that enhance immunomodulatory capabilities and performanciler productivity and profitability. Also, continuous exposure of antibiotics to tackle these situations have not been well benefited due to development of antibiotic resistance, suppressed immune function, antibiotic residue in meat and government regulations.

Feeding in poultry constitutes roughly about 75% of the total cost of production and represents a vital tool to exploit the genetic potential of bird, as it contains all the important nutrients to optimize bird’s growth and health. However, feed can potentially expose the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) or gut to certain pathogenic organisms like E. coli, Salmonella, etc. To achieve optimum productivity and potential, the health condition of GIT is of paramount importance in poultry production. Therefore, different performance additives are incorporated to optimize the nutrient absorption and supplement the bird with balanced hygienic feed. A healthy GIT not only affects the feed digestion, nutrient absorption and metabolism, but also impacts on energy and protein utilization, immune response and diseases resistance. Providing birds with appropriate and hygienic feed free from potential pathogens is believed to have beneficial effects on their gut health, since inappropriate maintenance of gut health depresses immune system and productivity.

On 08 November 2018, KAI celebrated World Quality Day for the fourth consecutive year at Gummidipoondi factory, India. The motto of celebrating World Quality Day is to create quality awareness and promote quality culture in the organization, which helps to serve our customers in best way with our quality products and services. All the employees in the factory actively participated in the celebration and a huge number of creations received from the participants were displayed in the celebration, which shows the level of awareness about the importance of quality within the organization. Dr. R. Sureshkumar, KAI President, Dr. Haridasan Chirakkal, KAI Vice President - R&D, George Joseph, KAI Vice President - Operations and other executives of KAI delivered speeches about the importance and positive impact of quality and trust towards our business success and organizational growth.

In past few decades, tremendous improvements in the genetic potential of both broiler and layer chicken breeds had been made. To leverage the maximum genetic potential of modern chicken breeds, intensive rearing system was adopted by poultry producers. Under such type of rearing system, the birds are exposed to various stresses due to rapid growth, environmental challenges, immunosuppression, etc. This makes the birds more vulnerable to infectious pathogens leading to illness, decrease in performance and mortality. To minimize these losses and enhance the growth and productivity, antibiotics have been used by the poultry producers as in-feed medication since a long time.

In tropical countries, heat stress is one of the major challenges in Poultry Industry which makes it difficult to maintain the egg production and liveliness of the birds during summer. Researchers have been working to develop techniques to improve the sustainability of birds during stress conditions. Situations worsen when high temperature is accompanied by high humidity. Due to the continuous increase in global warming, it is time to develop better managemental practices for birds during heat stress conditions.

Water is the most essential nutrient for all the living beings including poultry. Water is involved in many aspects of poultry metabolism including body temperature control, food digestion and absorption, nutrients transport, and waste products elimination from the body. Therefore, providing clean and safe drinking water every day is the key of success for better farm health and economic returns to the producer. Although the importance of providing enough water or adequate access to water is well accepted, the importance of water quality on poultry performance is often overlooked. With rise in global population by 9.3 billion in 2050, demand for meat also increases with population growth. As estimated, poultry will account 37% of global meat supply to become world’s largest meat sector by 2022. The increasing consumption of animal products leads to higher pressure on global resources such as land, energy and water. For this, maintaining quality in drinking water for poultry is an important nutritional aspect as birds consume water at twice the level of feed.